Princess Moon
by hellenelle
Summary: What if Usagi hadn't been the first Sailor Soldier awakened? What if she'd been captured by the Dark Kingdom, and her Sailor Team was forced to fight without her?
1. Bad Luck Follows A Black Cat

The sunlight was the same every morning, streaking in through the kitchen windows in sharp, cruel daggers. It brightened the whole house, window to window until the light was almost unbearable. The glint off of the white counter tops was the first thing that hit Mizuno Eriko's eyes when she walked into the kitchen.

She was dressing as she walked out of her bedroom. She suppressed a yawn and looked around. Everything was in order; the refrigerator was humming, the water taps were off, and her daughter was sitting at the table.

"Good morning," Ami said. She turned up to her mother, who was still rubbing her dark blue eyes, trying to chase the last traces of sleep away. Her mother mumbled something back to her and slumped over to the coffee machine. It was situated alone on a counter, in its own little shrine of practicality. Ami turned back to the book she was reading; it was spread across the table below her breakfast plates. She read it as she nibbled on eggs and rice. Her fingers traced lightning fast along the page, up and down, tracking the words as she read them.

When she looked up next, her mother was sipping on the first cup of the day, her eyes closed in something close to worship. "Do you have surgery scheduled today?" Ami asked, reaching for her cup of tea. Her mother finished sipping before looking at her across the brim of the cup.

"Knee replacement at twelve," she answered, after thinking for a moment. The coffee had helped her voice substantially; no longer was it thick and dry with sleep. "And I'm on rounds until late tonight. You know how it is."

"I do." Ami replied, sipping. The mist from the hot tea rose around her face, and her mother almost wondered if it didn't hide her daughter's face completely. Kept anyone from seeing what was going on there.

Ami stood as her mother sat, picking up the book and carrying it across the wide room to her school bag. She slipped it inside, and stopped by the entrance to pull her shoes on. Her mother watched, quietly sipping coffee. Sometimes, the older woman wondered if she had been so like her daughter at a younger age. There were remarkable resemblances, of course. The hair - though Ami's was lighter than her mother's, both of them had the same blue hair, and wore it in much the same style. And she was so studious, and so serious. Ami's mother could remember a time when nothing mattered to her more than becoming a doctor. She imagined it was the same for her daughter.

_Only, I brought friends home with me once in a while._

But it was a fleeting concern, and Ami straightened. "I'll pick up milk on the way home from cram school, we're almost out." She said. "I'm leaving," she added mechanically as she pulled the door open and slipped out into the hallway.

"Come back safely," her mother said as the door closed.

Ami waved to the woman at the greeter's desk as she left the building. The clean glass doors slid open without a sound, and she stepped into the sunlight. Like always. Well, not always, she corrected. Sometimes it rains.

She didn't afford a glance at the building behind her, because she had studied it long and hard enough to know its every detail. Back when her father thought she might have artistic potential, he used to teach her. Look closely at anything, closely enough, and break it into enough little simple bits, tiny flat shapes. Memorize the world.

It wasn't far, from her apartment building (_condominium_ building, the owners always insisted, as if apartment was a sour insult) to Azabu Juuban Junior High School. Just a few blocks, and Ami had memorized it all. A tree, a phone pole. Past the arcade, where one of the workers was pasting up new posters. 'SAILOR V ACTION GAME!'

Ami passed by, barely noticing. The streets were fairly empty, this early in the morning. Ami was the only student she'd seen so far in a Juuban uniform. It was always like that. Ami liked to allow herself enough time to get to school, no matter what. _To be early is to be on time,_ she told herself. _To be on time is to be late._ And besides, being early meant time alone in the classroom to read, without the other students, or the teacher, to distract her.

Ami stopped in front of the book store to peer in through the windows. It was closed, dark and welcoming with rows upon rows of books peering out at her. But it was just one thing she was anxious to see. Had they gotten it yet? Received the shipment?

Weeks ago, she had pre-ordered a copy of a new translation of an American science book. The store had said they would have it in by the first of April. And here it was barely days away, and Ami's guts were tying in a knot in impatience. But no, the store was still closed, and if her book had arrived, there was no way she'd find out from staring in the windows and wasting valuable study time.

She turned from the shop window and stopped abruptly. Sitting in front of her on the side walk and staring up at her with large, wild, red eyes was a black cat. Ami jumped back half a step, stumbling in her neat school-mandated black shoes. The cat gave her another glance and, with a single demanding mew, darted away. Ami shook herself. Just an alley cat, right?

She looked after it, a black streak vanishing quickly down the road, and shuddered again. Black cats aren't bad luck, she reprimanded herself. That's a completely unproved, unsubstantiated theory. A superstition.

_You don't believe in superstitions._

She was chilled though; was it just her imagination, or did the wind seem colder now? The empty street a little unfriendly? She chided herself again. Superstition has been explained by modern science, she told herself. It's what happens when a result, assigned randomly, is perceived by the subject to have been caused by their behavior. A person hears that bad cats are bad luck. If that person encounters a black cat and subsequently has a bad day, they attribute it to the cat and tell other people; but if the person's day is good, they don't associate it with the cats. It's a confirmation bias, Ami told herself; it's humanity's desire to not check whether result y is actually affected by variable x. Superstition is decidedly unscientific.

Still, as she started walking again, shifting the weight of her bag nervously from hand to hand, she couldn't help feeling that it was an ominous omen. A bad way to start the day, if nothing else.

It wasn't until she reached the gates of the school--tall, impressive, rails shaped like thin pencils, that she could have sketched if she had her father's hands--that she saw a single other student in the Juuban uniform. Even past the gates, in the blank, grassless front yard, there were few. Athletes, doing morning workouts. People trudging up to classrooms to set up for the day, assigned an unfortunate early morning duty, groaning and rubbing sleep out of their eyes.

As for Ami, there wasn't any sleep left to rub away, to chase off. She'd been awake most of the night, reading or thinking or staring at the ceiling willing herself to rest. The willing had not worked, and she'd barely closed her eyes before the sun and her mother's alarm clock woke her.

She paused in the front entrance to change her shoes, slipping the black loafers into her slim cubby-hole. As she bent down to slip on her white indoor sneakers, a stitch in her side stung at her. She sucked in breath hastily and stood. The same spot had been hurting for the last three days. She brought her hands to the spot, just a few inches above her left hip, on the front of her body. The pain stung through her again and she bent over the cramped spot. Breathe in, breathe out. She didn't realize she'd dropped her school bag until a voice above her startled her.

"Mizuno-san?"

Her head snapped up, and it took her a moment to stutter a reply.

"I'm fine, just a… Just a cramp." The girl beside her smiled, but her eyes were still worried.

"Congratulations on your practice exam scores, Mizuno-san," said the girl in a voice of required politeness, reaching into her own cubby. Ami straightened, as the pain dulled, and looked at the girl for a long moment. Too long a moment, really.

"Thank you." Ami said, finally, her eyes looking back down to the floor, down to her shoes that were half tied. The girl left, and Ami bent back to her shoes. The pain was almost gone, really. Just a dull ache. _Maybe I walked too fast_.

By the time she had slid into her seat, the pain was gone. She reached into her bag and pulled out a text book. It was a plain, brown book on comparative governments. Ami ran her finger along the top of it, until she found her bookmark. She flipped it open, and glanced up at the clock. Only fifteen minutes until class began, and less than that until her classmates began arriving and cluttering the air so that she couldn't read quite as well. She had wasted time, then, with the cat and down at her locker.

_Well, there's no use crying over spilled milk,_ Ami told herself, proud that she'd memorized another of the idioms she'd been studying that week. Her teacher at cram school would be pleased. She bent her head and began to read.

She fell into the book easily, and it wasn't until the classroom had almost filled that she looked up again, mildly surprised that so many people had arrived so loudly without her notice. Even the teacher had walked in, an older man who could never seem to control a single student, let alone a whole room of them. Ami felt remotely bad for him, but she knew there was nothing she could do. She managed to read a few more sentences before the teacher cleared his throat and stepped up to the podium.

"Today, if you'll all take out your English texts and turn to chapter five, we'll continue studying introductions."

The class was already whispering, chattering, lines of low energy running up and down as Ami reached into her bag to pull out her textbook. She sighed, placing it on top of her own book; she'd read this chapter last week, and they'd covered it in cram school two days ago.

_Review is always necessary_, she chided herself, and began reading. My name is Youko. Nice to meet you. I am Japanese.

When the lunch bell rang, Ami was startled. She'd been working on a math sheet and she'd lost track of time. She looked up, and for just a moment watched the other students move around her. Standing up, talking, shouting across the room, pulling desks together and pulling lunches out.

Ami stood quietly and picked up her school bag. She walked to the front of the classroom, and out into the hallway without even being noticed by the teacher. He was too busy shouting at the other students to stop throwing things. Ami knew it was a cruel thing to regret that Juuban Junior High didn't sort classes by rank, but she regretted it nonetheless.

Out in the hallway, it was quieter. Ami walked, trying to keep her footsteps quiet. It was easier if teachers didn't stop her, after all. What she was doing wasn't exactly against the rules, but it wasn't smiled upon either.

Up ahead, by the water fountain, a group of students were talking. Ami didn't recognize them at first, but as she got closer and turned her face towards the floor--half shy, half sly--and they began to speak, she realized they were from Homeroom One. A boy and a girl; the boy was sniffling, trying to hold back tears.

"The love of my life," the boy sobbed. He rubbed his fists underneath his glasses. "Out sick, for the third day in a row!"

The girl next to him patted his shoulder awkwardly. "I'm sure she's fine," she said, offering him a tissue. He grabbed it and blew his nose loudly. "She's probably just skipping to sleep in, anyway."

"Slander," the boy muttered, and then Ami was past them and, curious as she was, there wasn't a single reason for her to turn back and listen to the rest of their conversation.

She arrived at the library soon enough, and slid into its dark, quiet, book-filled safety. She set herself down at one of the tables in the back, and pulled out her book again, followed by her lunch box and a tiny bottle of water. She had thirty-three more minutes before class began again; that was ample time to read and eat, free of distractions and stares.

Lunch was over too soon, of course, and Ami returned to class. They got back test scores in the afternoon, and Ami resolved to study harder after school. She had the ability to do better, and she knew it; ninety-eight just wasn't an acceptable grade.

When the final bell rang, Ami was immersed in her text book; she'd lost track of the class, who were mostly clowning around anyway, and the teacher had somehow fallen asleep at his desk.

She rose from her desk slowly, stretching her arms, as her classmates stampeded out into the afternoon. She gathered her books, slipping them into her black bookcase, and, bowing goodbye to the still slumbering teacher, made her way out into the afternoon. The school was, again, deserted. It seemed to Ami that she was the last person to leave. She knew there had to be sports clubs practicing somewhere, though, right? It was a four-minute thirteen-second walk to cram school. She'd timed it one day when there was nothing better to do as she walked. Just in case, she supposed.

_Just in case what_, a more logical part of her brain laughed, asking what could possibly ever happen that would require her to know exactly how long it took to walk from her school to cram school?

Something black darted out in front of her and Ami yelped. She jumped back, wobbling for a moment, and looked down. There, off to her left, a black cat was sitting on the sidewalk, regarding her. The cat from this morning, Ami realized.

_That's preposterous._ _Cats all look alike, anyway._ Ami shook her head; maybe she wasn't getting enough to eat. Malnutrition does funny things to your head, after all. "Be more careful, kitty." Ami said, reaching out to pet the cat. But before her hand even got close, the cat hissed and scampered away. Feeling rather put out as it was her second cat encounter to end badly that day, Ami continued her four-minute thirteen-second walk.

Although after stopping for the cat, she was going to be late.

Not that, in the end, being late mattered. When she arrived at her classroom, on the second story of a white, glass windowed building in the heart of the Juuban shopping district, she realized that her entire trip had been pointless.

The building itself was new and loud, an eye-catching structure whose entire front face was devoted to advertisement. The enormous, shiny sign read "Juuban Crystal Cram School" in block letters; below, a caption claimed the ability to turn any child into a genius.

The school, like the building, was new and rather brilliant. Ami had switched into this cram school just a month ago, coming from her old one across town. She told her mother it was because the walk was shorter, which would give her more time to study; the truth of the matter, though, was that Ami had found she could solve most of the problems faster than her old instructors, and she'd finished reading their textbook library. It wasn't of any use to her anymore.

Juuban Crystal, though, in addition to being bright and new itself, was full of bright, young instructors that Ami respected, even liked. She slipped into her desk and smiled up at her Monday-Wednesday teacher, Tanemura-sensei.

"Good afternoon, Mizuno," the teacher, a tall woman in her mid-thirties, greeted, walking over to her. "How is school going?"

"Very well, thank you." Ami replied, as she began to pull her books out of her bag again, setting them up on her desk. She glanced up at the teacher and smiled. "What are we studying today?"

"English," Tanemura-sensei said. "Greetings and self descriptions are always on national exams, so we're going to hammer those points home. Not," she said, laughing a little to herself, "that you need it hammered home." Ami turned back to her books, afraid she'd blush. She could feel heat spreading across her cheeks, brightening her face at that very second. So, as her teacher continued to talk, she started digging through her bag again, looking for her English text book. "I've had a few students ask if you wouldn't mind tutoring them outside of class, actually. You wouldn't be interested in a part-time job, would you?"

But Ami hadn't heard more than half of her teacher's offer. She was casting about, looking half-frantically for something. "Mizuno?"

"I can't find my textbook, Tanemura-Sensei. I think I must have left it back at school." Ami mentally cursed her bad luck. "If I run, I can make it there and back in time for the beginning of class." She turned and headed for the door, as her teacher offered to lend her an extra copy. But Ami was determined to use her own copy and, after bowing at the door and promising she'd be back quickly, she skittered out of the building.

The shopping district had filled up with other students, laughing in arcades and chatting in front of store windows. It was too loud, too cramped, too frantic for Ami, and it made it impossible to run. And she'd _have_ to run, if she didn't want to miss the first half of the lesson. So, when she passed the opening of an alley she knew let out half a block away from her school, she darted into its dark interior.

She started running in earnest, her black shoes slapping against the pavement. The alley was wide, and even though it was full of shadows she didn't have a hard time making her way around the dumpsters and trashcans that lined either side of her path.

But when a black shadow streaked out in front of her feet, Ami didn't have enough time to react. _For the third time today,_ her mind exclaimed as she careened to the ground. She landed on her knees with a shock of pain. She looked back at the cat; it was lying on the ground, mewing faintly. Ami crawled over to it, rubbing a scraped kneecap, and tried to figure out what was wrong. "I'm sorry, kitty," she said, reaching out to touch its side. It looked beat up, injured in a way that Ami didn't think being tripped over could do; and when she pulled her hand away, there was blood on her fingers. The cat mewed and tried to pull itself to its feet. It was the same cat, with the shiny gold spot on its head in the shape of a crescent moon. Ami was about to reach forward and try to lift the cat up, when she heard a hissing sound coming from behind her.

She looked over her shoulder, and gasped. She'd thought perhaps it was another cat; that this cat had perhaps been in a fight. But what she saw was no cat. At least, no cat that Ami had ever heard of before, and even when she felt humble she would admit that she'd heard of quite a lot.

It was bending over a few feet down the alley, the way Ami had come. It wasn't a person, but it wasn't an animal either. It was, instead, something between the two; it was covered in yellow-green fur, and its eyes were yellow slits. It raised a hand at her and hissed again. It had long, sharp fingers with pointed claws, and Ami couldn't tell where the flesh left off and the claws began. Almost instinctively, Ami shrank backwards and put a hand out behind her. The little cat was cowering at her side, spitting and hissing.

And then, as Ami's heart fluttered, the creature before her opened its mouth and _spoke_. "Surrender her now, if you know what's good for you." It said, in a rasping, stupid voice that made Ami shudder. Ami shook her head. A part of her was screaming inside, _what are you doing? It's just a cat! _That part of her was listing off a hundred logical reasons why she should just turn her back and go to cram school (it was cram school and she had to go, and it was just a cat, and it wasn't her concern, and she shouldn't be risking her life, she had responsibilities) but for the first time in her life, she wasn't listening to logic.

Instead, she clenched her teeth and shifted her weight slowly; she got to her feet, but stayed in a crouch, watching the monster in front of her. The monster blinked its black eyes and hissed out another breath. Ami shivered, watching it closely, her mind buzzing. What in the world? Why would something like this be going after a cat? But her thoughts were cut short as the monster suddenly sprung at her, its large hind legs extending in a lightning-fast jump. Ami flung herself to the side at the last second, and the monster crashed into the wall. Ami landed on her side next to a stack of trash cans, breathing heavily. She stood and glanced around. The little black cat darted to her side and yowled loudly. Almost as if she wanted attention, Ami fancied, but her mind was jerked back to the present as the monster hissed again.

Ami dashed aside as the monster sprang again, but she realized quickly that she hadn't been the target. It jumped directly at the little black cat, who wasn't as quick as Ami; the monster pinned the cat under one of its clawed hands and growled. Some half-formed words came out, and the cat yowled again.

Ami, for the first time in a long, long time, didn't think at all as she lifted the lid of one of the trash cans next to her, and hurled it at the monster. It struck it on the shoulder, and the monster turned towards her and howled. Ami dashed aside as the beast dived for her and the cat escaped. Ami had been aiming for the monster's head, but a hit was a hit. She looked at the monster where it crouched, exhausted from its spring. They were both panting by now. All three of them if Ami counted the cat, and why shouldn't she?

"Leave this cat alone!" Ami shouted, picking up another lid. The monster growled, rubbing its shoulder with one hand and looking at her with malice. Ami wondered if it was deciding whether to barbecue her or eat her raw.

Ami winced and held out the trashcan lid. It was a resourceful weapon, but it wasn't going to do much good against this large, angry, inexplicable cat-monster. That was when a small, coughing voice spoke up from somewhere below her.

"Aim for his stomach. That's a weak point."

Before Ami could question the voice--What? Where? And most of all, who?--the cat-monster tensed to spring. Ami flung the trashcan lid like a frisbee and it slammed right into the belly of the beast. The monster hissed and staggered backwards, and Ami looked down.

"Good." The cat congratulated.

Ami blinked. Cat. The monster yowled again and Ami looked up. It was getting its wind back, and looking powerfully mad. And Ami realized an unfortunate fact: the cat-monster had more claws and teeth than Ami had trashcan lids. In fact, Ami's current weapon count was now zero; there were no trashcan lids within reaching, or even leaping distance of her.

"What now?" She asked the cat as she backed towards the wall. The monster made a horrendous rasping sound somewhere deep in its chest; Ami only realized afterwards that it had been laughter. Ami's back touched the brick wall. To her left, a dumpster. To her right, a stack of trashcans. And in front of her, an advancing monster. Her mind, detached as always, observed that at least in the next life she'd know to avoid crossing paths with a black cat.

-------------------------

NOTES:

Thanks to my beta reader, cosmicfiction at This was originally posted on my livejournal (hellenelle. but I've decided to move it here, we'll see how this goes. The usual disclaimers apply--Sailor Moon, not mine, and I make no claim to it.

For a few end notes (which really, feel free to skip, I'm writing for my own vanity here)--

1) I have no idea what Ami's mother's name actually is. I don't think it's mentioned in the manga, which is the continuity that this fic will be following.

2) The 'I'm leaving'/'Come back safely' exchange is my somewhat loose translation of ittekimasu / ittarasshai; I'm trying to use as little Japanese as possible in this fic; exceptions will probably be name suffixes, which I can't stand to see translated. (Magic Knight Rayearth and endless uses of "Umi-ster" and "Fuu-ster", anyone?) If you need the meanings of -chan, -san, and that whole category, I suggest http/


	2. Justice or Cram School? No Contest

* * *

Princess Moon, Chapter Two: Justice or Cram School? No Contest

As of July 3, 2007: I'm going through and slightly polishing the thus-far released chapter (putting in spaces where there need to be larger spaces, changing a few rogue spellings, adding useless notes such as this one).

If you're interested in reading the story at a more stylized location, you can find a link to it on my user profile. (Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to put a URL in here without causing major errors. Sigh.)

* * *

"What now?

Ami looked down at the cat in time to see it regard her for a moment. She glanced up again at the advancing monster and took a deep breath. But before the creature could spring towards her -- could use the muscles that had begun rippling on its hind legs -- the little cat made a tremendous jump and did a back flip.

There was a flash of light, and when Ami could see again the cat was holding a blue stick in its mouth. Before Ami had time to ask where it had come from, the cat flicked her head and threw it up at Ami.

Ami fumbled and just barely caught the stick, which she could see now was actually a blue and gold pen. On its cap was a gold planet with a ring around it; inside there was something that looked like an old alchemical symbol, one that Ami didn't remember. She stared at it in confusion. She imagined that the monster was a bit baffled too, seeing as it hadn't killed her yet.

"Hold the pen in the air!"

Ami looked down at the cat in confusion.

"Just do what I say!" The cat yelled, and Ami, lacking any better plan, followed her command. The cat shouted again. "Yell out Mercury Power Make Up!"

"What?" Ami screamed, and jumped back as the monster stood and hurled itself at her. Her question turned into a scream as she dodged the monster's claws. It was now in the corner with her; less that a foot away from her, breathing heavily and stinking worse.

"Yell it!" The cat yowled from somewhere that Ami couldn't see. The monster grinned at her, and Ami finally decided to just trust the cat's voice. It's probably a hallucination, anyway she thought as she thrust the pen into the air.

"Mercury Power Make Up!"

And the hallucination was only getting worse. Ami felt as if her skin had turned into ice. Water rushed around her, and when her feet thumped back to the ground there was something drastically wrong. She was wearing somebody else's clothing.

At least, that was her first thought. Because she'd started out in her school uniform, which had long sleeves and at least a respectable skirt. This was considerably smaller. She felt completely exposed, and she told herself to chew out the cat, should she survive the next few minutes. And to make matters worse, she was wearing heels.

Well, heeled boots, she corrected herself. The problem remained; Ami hated walking in heels. There was a reason she always wore loafers. Heels made her clumsy. She looked around for the cat and the monster. Both were looking rather surprised. The cat in a good way, the monster in a decidedly not-good way. The monster had backed up down the alley a few feet and was looking nervously at the exit into the street. As if it was scared.

"Hold it!" She shouted, prompted by a sudden feeling that it wasn't right for the monster to back out of the battle now that it was at a disadvantage. More than being wrong, it was unjust, and Ami wasn't about to let injustice --

She shook her head. Where the hell had that come from? For all she was concerned Ami was quite happy to let the monster leave her alone. The cat, however, seemed to have other ideas.

"Finish it off!" The little cat yelled. Ami shot her a look that clearly said 'And just how?'

The cat yowled her next instructions, and Ami followed them without a second thought. The monster had a deciding look on its face. As if it was balancing running away with attacking her. Ami held out her hand and screamed the words the cat had just told her.

"Shabon Spray!"

Her hands froze. It was as if something cold and vaporous poured down her arms, and she cupped it for a second in her hands. Whatever it was. Her body had stopped acting under her command; it moved on its own through motions that were oddly familiar. The ball of mist in her hands rippled.

She released it. It rushed out from her body and expanded and suddenly the whole alley was filled with a fog so thick she couldn't see her own hands. The monster howled, somewhere to the right of her, and Ami spun. Even though she couldn't see anything, she had a sense of where everything was. The cat was at her feet. The monster was inching out of the alley, slow and nervous and blinded by the fog. Ami was ...

Ami was lifting another trashcan lid in her hand and slowly, soundlessly, walking towards the beast. The fog felt cold on her skin, and damp.

And there. She was behind the monster, and it was still confused and trying to escape without her notice. She swung the thin end trashcan lid directly at the back of its neck, and there was a sickening crunch as her makeshift weapon hit home.

Ami dropped her weapon as the monster crumbled into dust; the trashcan lid clanged on the ground. The monster was nothing but a pile of dirt. She wobbled on her feet. The monster had turned to dust...

"What just--" Ami started, feeling all of a sudden less sure of herself and less as though she could stand on her own. The fog was clearing, but it didn't help Ami to feel any less cold or clammy.

The cat padded up behind her and looked at the pile of dust, and Ami turned down to her and tried to find something to say.

Something, anything, really. Now that she was coming out of the heat of battle--just a rush of adrenlaine, her mind told her, not some Viking-type battle fury--the reasoning parts of her brain were taking full control again. What was she doing? What was she wearing? What did you say to a talking cat?

But the cat spoke first and saved Ami one concern, at least.

"Good job, Sailor Mercury." She said; she jumped onto one of the trash cans and turned to face Ami.

"I --- I think you've got me confused with someone," Ami managed to get out. Sailor what? Mercury?

The cat shook her head. (Later, Ami would try and figure out exactly how a cat acquired the body language to shake her head -- animals had whole different sets of expression, she'd seen it on those educational cable channels.) "My name is Luna. I've been sent to awaken you as a Sailor Soldier."

Ami shook her head. "A what? I don't know what you're talking about."

Luna, the cat, shifted on her paws; she looked agitated. "There is a great evil massing to try and take over this world--the Sailor Soldiers are the only ones who can stop it."

Ami blinked. "I'm really sorry, Luna, ...Luna-san, but I'm not a soldier. I'm a student. I'm in middle school." There was no way she was getting involved in this cat's battle, even if it was real and not the premise of a bad sci-fi anime.

"You are a soldier." The cat insisted. "You transformed. If you weren't the chosen guardian, you wouldn't have been able to kill that monster. You have the power of the Sailor Soldier of Mercury, and you're wearing her battle uniform. It's got to be you."

"This is a battle uniform? A mini-skirt?"

The cat shrugged. "They call Sailor V a sailor-suited soldier fighting for justice, don't they? You're a fighter for justice too, Sailor Mercury."

"Sailor V is an urban legend." Ami insisted. "And I can't be a soldier for justice -- I have the National Practice Exams coming up!" Am started wringing her hands; she was going to be late and she was going to get behind in her studying and then--a whole future of failure was spreading in her panicked mind. "I have to get out of this, I can't go to cram school like this -- oh no, I'm missing class and I don't even have my text book!" She clenched her hands. "How do I get out of this outfit?"

The cat sighed.

------------------------------

Panting, Ami slid into her seat in cram school just as the second lesson started. Tanemura-sensei gave her a baffled look, and Ami shrank into her seat. She could feel her face going red; she'd come back almost a half an hour later, her hair a mess and her skirt ripped, without the textbook.

She made do for the rest of the lessons by taking notes in her school notebook. It was something she would have to go back and fix, later, of course. She threw herself completely into the lessons, and the notes, and the lecture; she didn't let her mind wander to the cat, or the alley, or the pile of dust that had tried to kill her.

Ami was good at throwing herself into knowledge. Too good, maybe, because by the time she left the cram school and started on the walk home, she'd nearly forgotten about Luna and Sailor Mercury. (Repressed it, really, she told herself later. It was only the first of a thousand things she'd soon wish she could relegate to her subconscious.)

So it was, for a second, a horrible suprise when Luna jumped down from a fence and confronted her in the middle of the darkening street. She didn't say a word, but there were people all around, and Ami had the distinct impression that the cat didn't want the world at large to know that she talked. Ami didn't blame her. The memory dawned on Ami all of a sudden as she saw the cat, and she backed up. She'd just take a different route home.

Luna followed her. When they got to within a block of her house, with her building rising out of Tokyo's sprawl, Ami turned on her heels and looked at the cat.

"You can't come in." She said. "There's a no pets policy."

Luna mewed and said nothing, so Ami (feeling vaguely bad, did Luna have a home? A place to stay? Food?) went indoors and upstairs to her empty apartment, where she spread her homework across the kitchen table and studied ahead three more chapters in her science book.

Coming home after midnight, her mother found her fast asleep with her head across a textbook.

-------------------------------------

The next morning, Thursday, Ami was out of the house earlier than usual; her mother wasn't up, and wouldn't be up until noon, at least. She took the time to sleep in, when she had a day off. There was no other reason to stay; she might as well get in even earlier, and get more studying done. She could retrieve her textbook, make up for what she missed in cram school, transfer her notes...

She was so lost in the crowd of all the things she had to do that she didn't notice Luna in front of her until she'd almost tripped over the little black cat.

Luna growled at her and Ami looked down; her heart felt like it had fallen out of her chest. She'd hoped maybe it was a dream, or a one-time thing, or else she'd convinced the cat to go away and offer 'Sailor Mercury' to someone else.

"You have to listen to me, Ami." Luna said. Ami looked around her, alarmed, but it was early enough that the streets were nearly vacant. Nobody to see a cat talking to her; better, nobody to see her talking to a cat.

"I'm sorry," she began, but Luna cut her off.

"Please, Ami, five minutes. Just come with me for five minutes."

She was going to say that she had to be in school, but she decided to give the cat five minutes. It was only polite, after all. And then she could tell Luna that she didn't have time to be Sailor Mercury, and give her back the pen (which was at the very bottom of Ami's school bag, where it had been crammed since Ami stumbled into cram school yesterday afternoon).

Luna led her down a side street and into an alley. A different one than yesterday, Ami realized after a tremble of unexplained fear went down her spine. She hopped up onto a dumpster so that she was near Ami's eye level.

"I told you yesterday that you're a fighter for justice." Luna began. "I think maybe I should have explained it better. You're the soldier who fights with the blessing of the planet Mercury, but you don't fight criminals like Sailor V does."

Ami watched the cat; her tail was lashing, though the rest of her looked calm and composed.

"Your mission is to protect the world from monsters like the one that attacked you yesterday. That was only the first, and probably the weakest, of what's to come."

"Shouldn't you be asking the army? Or the police? I almost died yesterday. I'm not cut out for this, I'm a student." Well, okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, she thought. But it had been close, for a while there.

"They couldn't deal with them, even if they would believe what I said. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a talking cat." Luna rose and began pacing across the top of the dumpster, her tail lashing faster behind her.

Ami had to hold back a laugh as she responded; it would have been horribly impolite. "What makes you think I can deal with this? I don't know anything about fighting, or monsters, or... Isn't there anyone else?"

Luna hung her head. "There was. That's part of the problem. There are other planetary soldiers, and you weren't supposed to be awakened first."

"What?"

"The soldier I was sent to awaken, Sailor Moon, was taken by our enemies, and I couldn't do anything to stop them."

A flurry of thoughts crowded themselves into Ami's brain that moment. First, she wasn't alone, she could pass this off to someone else, she could keep her normal life, she could still study enough for the exams. Second, if they took that other soldier, they could come for her just as easily, couldn't they? Third, and the one that tumbled out when she opened her mouth-- "The moon isn't a planet. It's a satellite."

She felt herself turning beet red as she realized that she had said that, of all things. Luna didn't look up, though, so Ami faltered onwards. "What--what happened?"

"I found her; I made sure it was her, I made double sure. I followed her for a whole day just to be sure. I went to her house -- I tried to tell her and I gave her the brooch but they must have followed me. They came out of nowhere and they took her. They've been chasing me since then."

Ami couldn't think of a thing to say.

"We have to find a way to get her back." The cat looked up at Ami. "That's why I need your help. She's just an innocent girl, like you."

"I feel bad. I really do." Ami said. It sounded insincere, but she meant it. She felt horrible for the girl, and if there had been anything she could do, she would have done it in an instant. But this? "But I can't do it."

Luna looked up at her. "You know her." She said, and her voice trembled. "She goes to your school. She's missing. She'll never come back unless you save her!"

Ami's heart felt like it had fallen to the bottom of her stomach, or else out of her body all together. She pretended it had, for a second. She had gotten that reputation for being an emotionless genius, and it was for a reason; she suppressed feeling long enough to dig the pen out of her bag and hand it to Luna.

"I'm sorry. There is nothing I can do."

The little black cat looked at her with some emotion that Ami couldn't place.

"Alright, Mizuno-san." It was the first time the cat had used any sort of honorific with her, and it caught her a little off-guard. It was as if a wall had sprung up between them. "I understand. But keep the pen."

"I can't do anything." She repeated. "Give it to someone who will help you." Her heart threatened to revolt, to say that she'd help because it was right, because there was someone in danger, but Ami wouldn't let herself.

"Keep it as thanks for saving me yesterday. Just use it as a pen. I hope it brings you luck on your exams."

Ami hesitated, but the cat looked serious. She put it back into her bag, and looked down at her watch. "I have to go. I'll be late for school."

She left the alley without any further goodbye, and Luna stayed perched on the dumpster for a long time after that, looking at the sky and wondering.


	3. For A Normal Life

Princess Moon, Chapter Three: For A Normal Life

* * *

Tsukino Usagi was dreaming strange dreams.

Sometimes she was a princess in a white gown gazing out across a blue ocean, watching the sun set and listening to some far distant music and sometimes she was running through the corridors of her school, searching for something, but the hallways kept changing and the ground was shifting under her feet, and sometimes she was waiting at a bus stop, just waiting and waiting and waiting until she realized she couldn't move.

But the jumble of her dreams resolved themselves into one coherent dream-memory: her room, at night. She had been dreaming she was Sailor V from the video game. She woke up to find a cat in her room -- the cat spoke and in the dream Usagi was suprised for a second before tried to go back to sleep. (Something more conscious, a sliver of intellect left in her wondered at that, sleeping within sleep.) The cat talked again; it told her something and she found a brooch on her dresser. A beautiful, beautiful brooch -- she'd wear it on her school uniform. Naru-chan would love it and want to go buy one just like it, and then they'd be twins and then... and then...

And then the dream turned sour. There was a man in her bedroom, a man with long silver hair who grabbed her arm and wrenched it, and she tried to scream but he threw her against a wall. The side of her stomach slammed hard against the side of her dresser and her head hit the corner and everything turned fuzzy. She saw him kick the talking cat to the floor and she stumbled to her feet and tried to run away. She got into the hall, but it was spinning and her head was throbbing.

Someone grabbed her arm and she tried to scream or turn around or get away or _anything_. But everything around her turned purple and black, and the floor was gone from under her feet. She was surrounded by darkness, bearing down on her, suffocating her. It felt like static electricity all over her body and it choked her breathing and clogged her eyes and wouldn't go away.

And then her dreams fragmented and she was running through the corridors of her school again, in the white dress, looking for somebody.

-----------------------------

That afternoon Ami lagged as she walked to cram school. She knew she had to be on time, and yet... somehow, it didn't inspire her. She chalked it off to her mind being in other places; disturbed sleep, or something like that. And she thought of everything but the blue pen in her book bag.

_You're distracted,_ she told herself. _It happens to the best. You just need a breather_. _A break. Something to refocus_.

She looked down at her watch at the same time as a part of her realized she wouldn't find her focus with an hour of break. And she only had six minutes before class began.

There was a vending machine on the sidewalk ahead of her, and she had a few hundred yen in her bag. And drinks were perfect for calming yourself, for refocusing. She stopped and dug a hand into her bag (and avoided the pen where it was crammed down at the bottom) and popped it into the machine; a can of iced Boss Coffee came out and she popped the tab open. Even the sound of it opening soothed her; she realized perhaps she was becoming something of a caffeine addict, but decided the thought didn't matter nearly as much as did soothing herself and getting on to cram school.

She sat down on the bench beside the vending machine for a few minutes and thought. She'd have to step up her preparations in English, because her teacher had just announced they'd be having a quiz at the end of next week. And after that she'd need to compensate for the imbalance in studying--maybe she'd make a trip on Saturday to the library instead of going shopping for new dinner plates with her mother. Her mother could handle it herself, and Ami would be home for dinner to try the new set out. That would have to do.

Her thoughts kept running down through her plans, and she was feeling more and more calm, and more and more ready to go out and face all the things she'd lined up for herself to do, when she saw a poster on the shop window next to her.

It was marvelous and strange, some part of her thought, that something so small as a poster, an eight by eleven scrap of paper, could scatter her calmness so.

"MISSING: TSUKINO USAGI. Age 14."

Ami stood to keep reading the paper. The girl's name was familiar. Tsukino-san... Ami tried to remember where she'd heard the name before.

"150 cm, long blonde hair, blue eyes, no other identifying marks..."

There was a grainy photograph below the description the girl in it looked familiar. She was staring at the camera and smiling like an idiot, Ami thought.

"Attends Azabu Juuban Junior High School, in the second year."

Ami's heart felt like it had literally skipped a beat. This Usagi went to her school, was in her grade? She remembered hearing the name in the halls, now that she thought of it. And then Luna's words came back to her (unbidden and Ami wished they hadn't, oh how she wished it).

_"She goes to your school. She's missing. She'll never come back unless you save her!"_

Did that mean that Tsukino Usagi (the missing girl) was Sailor Moon (the missing girl)? The logic seemed right, and worse, Ami had a sudden feeling in the pit of her stomach. She kept reading the poster, wishing for some proof that the two missing girls weren't the same person. It was easier to refuse to help Sailor Moon if Sailor Moon didn't have a face.

"Last seen Monday evening in her home. Any tips or information that help in finding her will be rewarded."

And there was a number to call if you had information. Ami clenched her can of coffee in her hand and gathered up her bags; she wasn't going to call it, of course, because all she'd have to say was "a talking cat told me what happened, but the police can't do anything about it". Oh, that would go over well.

She looked at her watch again and winced. If she didn't run, she was going to be late again, and that would be completely unacceptable. She started to dash and tried to force the photograph of Tsukino Usagi out of her mind.

-----------------------------

She got to the door of her cram school in plenty of time; when she looked up, she had to check the sign in front of her twice.

"Crystal Cram School: Now Under New Management! A Brand New Program For Excellence!"

"What next?" Ami grumbled to herself as she started up the stairs. She'd finally found a cram school that suited her, where the teachers understood her, and now it had to go and change?

_Everything has to go and change,_ she thought. She dropped into her seat and the people to either side of her shrank back. Mizuno-san was never in a mood this foul. Ami wasn't really cheerful, but she was always positive in her studious way. Right now she looked confused and something close to hopeless.

A new teacher, a tall woman in a smart skirt suit, walked into the room. Her high heels clicked as she came to the front of the class; Ami and the other students stood and bowed, but Ami was suffering inside. They were changing the teachers, too? Was nothing sacred?

"I'm sorry to tell you that your normal teacher isn't feeling very good today," the woman started. Ami perked up. "He'll probably be on his feet again in no time, but I'm here to substitute until he improves."

There was a wave of quiet chattering from the students at this.  
"No, no teachers have been replaced," the substitute continued. "The change in management, from what they've told me, is really nothing at all. You know how corporations are."

Ami, for her part, had to agree. It didn't seem like anything important, now that she'd seen it closer. She opened her notebook and started taking notes from the substitute's lecture. It was good. That was the first thing she noticed; this new woman was a very good teacher. She made her points efficiently and moved on without anything cluttering up her thinking. (She taught the way that Ami took notes, clean and efficient, without excess words or tangents.)

At the end of her lessons, the substitute (who hadn't given her name) paused. "I lied to you, a little bit, at the beginning of class." She admitted, pulling a folder from a drawer inside the desk. "There has been one important effect because of the change of management, and I've been asked to tell you all about it." She opened the folder. "The new owners think it's important to move Crystal Cram School into the computer age, so we're going to begin studying via computer. In particular, I'm going to give each of you a disk--we're calling it a Crystal Diskette--that you will use to study at home. It has tests and practices on it, but unlike your workbooks, it can tell you the answer immediately, and then analyze your strengths and weaknesses, and give you the most beneficial excercises to move on with."

Ami knew that workbooks helped you do that fine, but she didn't say anything. Most of the others around her were nodding and looking enthusiastic; the less work for them, the better.

"This method has been tested extensively, and it's been proven that guided study helps you prepare for examinations much more efficiently. I'd like you all to take the disk to your home computer, or, if you don't have one, use your school's AV lab or a libary, and do the first five study sections." She smiled as she placed the folder on her desk. "Although I'm sure some of you are ambitious enough to go on ahead as far as you can; feel free to. It will only improve you."

Ami felt a jolt. Was she imaginging it, or had the teacher looked directly at her as she said that? _No, you're being silly. Paranoid from all this._

"Pick up your disks on the way out, and have a productive day."

-----------------------------

Ami had finished her work for school the next day (and been disgusted with herself for doing her work the day before it was due -- she was slipping, doing work so close to time) and was about to slip the Crystal Diskette into her computer. Some studying would really clear her head, even if it was "guided study". _Cheaper study, really._

She tapped the disk against the computer screen for a few minutes, thinking and trying not to think at the same time. She didn't want to make a decision, and as long as she kept on tapping and thinking, she didn't have to.

Then the apartment door opened and her mother came in, carrying a load of groceries.

"Ami, how do you feel about chicken cutlets tonight?" Her mother asked with a wide smile--the smile reserved for her days off. Ami was up and helping her mother with the food in a second, and by the time she came back to studying, she'd forgotten about the Crystal Diskette entirely.

-----------------------------

The next morning, after the first bell and after her teacher had gotten things as far into order as he was going to get them, the PA crackled into life.

"Attention, students," the principal's voice came through the static. "Some of you may have already heard, one of our students here at Azabu Juuban has gone missing. Her family and the police are doing everything they can to find her and bring her home safely, and we're sure they will."

(Ami could hear the lie in his voice and she knew the other students could too.)

"If any of you have any concerns, please talk to the school counselor. And more importantly, if anyone knows anything, they should come down to the office right away. The more help we get, the sooner things will be back to normal." He paused. "I hope you'll all join me in hoping that Tsukino Usagi-san will be found safe and sound, very soon."

For the rest of the day, Ami could focus on nothing but the stitch in her side.

-----------------------------

She came into cram school on time and had the sudden feeling that her life was getting back on track. No more lateness, no more talking cats, no more Sailor Mercury. She dropped into her seat and spread her notes out in front of her; when she opened her pencil box she winced. All her pencils were out of lead, and she must have lost her pen somewhere. There was nothing she could write with in her box, and no pens or pencils, even at the bottom of her bag. Except the one.

But she _had_ to take notes; she'd get so behind if she let herself go for a day (and she'd already wasted so much time in school). So, wincing, she pulled out the Mercury pen and started to write with it. It would be entirely possible to ignore what else it could do; she'd only use it to write. Writing, and that would be all.

The other students seemed more subdued than usual, and Ami found herself getting more and more uncomfortable as they waited for their teacher. They were always quiet and well-behaved, because Crystal Cram School didn't accept just anybody, but today there was no chatting. Nobody on headphones, and nobody reading outside books. All the other students were sitting still and pleasantly, looking at their notes for class. It was, Ami saw with a sudden flash, a world of Mizuno Amis.

The thought kept her occupied until the door opened and her teacher walked in--no, not her teacher, but the substitute from yesterday. Ami frowned; it was supposed to be the Friday and Saturday review today, with one of the teaching aides (Crystal Cram School was great, but that didn't mean that they didn't give jobs to college students looking to make a little money).

And what was weirder, the substitute didn't explain why she was here when she shouldn't have been at all, and she was wearing the same suit. She smiled and opened a folder that was on her desk; the students rose and bowed to her, and Ami went along although her mind was whirring. Maybe the woman just didn't have a lot of variety in tastes? Or maybe she'd just gotten that suit cleaned last night?

She started her lesson and Ami opened her notes; she gripped the Mercury pen and was suprised when it actually did write. It was a nice, deep blue ink, and for a small moment of insanity she was happy to have it. Then she remembered herself and looked up at the teacher, waiting for the review lesson to begin.

"Welcome back," the substitute said. "We're going to have another productive day; being productive is a great thing, a great source of energy."

Ami blinked; what had the teacher just said? Energy? They weren't doing physics at all this year, and Ami didn't write any of it down. Maybe she was getting somewhere; she'd been such a good teacher yesterday, so Ami certainly hoped so.

"I'd like you all to keep being productive, for the sake of your grades."

"Yes," the students chorused. Ami caught herself just before she joined in, and wondered a second later why she hadn't. It was just a response. Maybe the teacher was getting them psyched up for a pop quiz?

Odd way to psych up, though.

"You'll keep working and giving your energy, right?" The air in the room felt crackly, like... Ami was hard pressed to describe it. A bit like static electricity when it made the fine hairs on her arms stand straight up. "You'll surrender your energy up to our great leader, won't you?"

The girl next to Ami nodded and slumped down over her desk. Ami gasped, and was about to open her mouth and tell the teacher to call the main office, or a doctor, or something, when she saw the rest of the room. They were all slumping over, too, relaxing slowly down onto the tables as if they were going to sleep.

Ami couldn't help it; she gasped. The substitute teacher's head snapped up (though what she'd been busy with, why she'd been looking down, Ami couldn't figure out). And her eyes were red.

"Why aren't you surrendering your energy?" the teacher asked, tipping her head sideways (altogether too much like a snake regarding her prey for Ami's tastes). "Why don't you lie down and let go?"

Ami stood, suddenly afraid. She stumbled backwards and bumped into her chair. It clattered to the ground and Ami barely avoided falling with it. The teacher was walking up the aisle towards her table, and every step she took she looked stranger. Like all of her body was moving slowly towards the color of her suit, a deep green. Like her hair was becoming rough and tangled and her fingernails were becoming longer and more like claws than fingernails at all.

It was the claws that threw Ami out of her paralyzed shock. "You're a monster!"

"Why aren't you surrendering your energy?" the monster-teacher shouted--it was almost more of a howl than a shout. She lunged across the classroom and Ami ran down the aisle of chairs, stumbling against the unconscious students. She got out of the teacher's reach just in time.

The monster started stalking down the aisle again; Ami saw in a flash that she was going to try and circle around, catch her without having to go through the center of the room where neither of them could move quickly. "You didn't do the homework, did you, Mizuno? You were slacking."

Ami grimaced; she _hadn't_ done the work, and she'd forgotten all about it. She was about to apologize--it was so ingrained in her--when she realized that, thank goodness she hadn't, because it had to have had some kind of tranquilizing effect on the other students.

But the teacher was going on, as she came closer to Ami and Ami started backing in the opposite direction. "You don't want to score well on your exams? You've got to give in, and we'll give you success. You can have the highest score in all of Tokyo, if you give up your energy to the Dark Kingdom."

Ami grimaced. It sure didn't look like that to her--nobody in that classroom was learning anything! They were just playing on the student's desires to do well, to get good scores and get into a good high school. Worse, they were playing on Ami's desire--her deep shameful need to keep on being the best and not slip and not let anybody else ahead of her. They were playing on her, too!

"How dare you do this? How dare you?" Ami asked, gripping the pen (which she'd forgotten about until now).

_I could stop her,_ Ami realized. _I'd only do it once more and it wouldn't do any harm and Luna would never even have to know. _It was so tempting, too tempting to resist and the pen thrummed in her hand like it knew her decision.

She threw her hand up and as she shouted she saw the teacher's face flash with terror and dismay.

"MERCURY POWER, MAKE UP!"

The sensation was the same as before, and when her feet hit the ground she was ready for it. She realized that the teacher hadn't moved--her expression hadn't changed. Time hadn't passed, and the world hadn't changed, though Ami had been lifted up and come down different. She'd come down in a mini-skirt, and come down ready with vengeance.

"Shabon Spray!" She shouted, throwing out the mist--again, just like before. No pre-amble, no explaination. It didn't matter to her, right now, whether this teacher-monster-thing knew what it had done or not. There was no due process in this justice of Sailor Soldiers, it seemed.

The room filled up with fog faster than the alley had, and thicker; either Ami was stronger, or the closeness of the room kept it from spreading anywhere.

She could hear the monster somewhere in the fog, but she couldn't tell where. Only that its footsteps were coming closer...

It was at that moment that the righteous anger and the idea of being Sailor Mercury, champion of justice, left Ami. She was stranded, a fourteen year old girl alone in a fogbank with a monster that she couldn't see.

-----------------------------

Luna was skulking in the alley behind a sushi shop, wishing that the owner would toss out some leftovers. She would have preferred cream, but there wasn't a dairy she knew of, and if there had been she doubted that they would have thrown out their quality cream. So sushi it was.

She refused to admit that she was in a pickle; one soldier kidnapped, could well be dead, and the other wouldn't fight. She'd stayed in the alleys all night, thinking through her options. She could try Ami again--but she knew the girl's answer would be the same. Her only real hope was to find the next soldier, Mars, and hope that she was more willing. And still alive.

It was then (at that exact moment when the chilling possibility that she would come to all the soldiers too late swept through her for the first time) that she felt it. Across town, faint and cold, a Sailor Soldier was fighting.

_Mercury!_ Luna jumped off the sushi shop dumpster and was racing down the alley towards the pulse of energy.

-----------------------------

Ami was crawling underneath the tables where all the other students were lying, and she was shaking. She could hear the monster's breathing out there in the room, and her footsteps. She'd almost run into it, once, and just barely gotten out of being gored on the long claws. She reached the center of the desks--or what she thought was the center, as well as she could tell--and curled up. The fog showed no sign of vanishing, and everything around her was blindingly white.

_What can I do?_ She asked herself, trying to force back a whimper of fear. Why this was worse than last time, she couldn't say. (Perhaps because she was trapped, or because she was without anybody else. Even a talking cat seemed like a great companion when you hadn't anybody at all.) She couldn't see the monster to attack it, and unlike last time, she didn't feel like she had any sense of where it was in the fog. She could hear the footsteps, and they echoed off the walls and sounded like they were all around her and-- and—

_Stop it,_ she told herself in vain, _you're only making it worse for yourself._ She breathed deeply and tried to look over her options in a sensible way.

She could stay here until the monster left (unlikely) or found her and ripped her to pieces (much more likely). Or she could rise up and find the monster in the fog bank and attack it with something. A chair, or a table, but it might as well be like attacking it with a pen or a ruler. Hopeless.

The propabilities weren't looking good. Just then, she heard a padding coming through the room, a soft padding entirely unlike the monster's feet. And then the cat, Luna, was standing in front of her and panting.

"You're-- Sailor Mercury, you're fighting-- you've--?" Luna managed to ask; it was plain to Ami that the cat had been running hard from, well, from where ever.

Ami didn't say anything--first of all, she couldn't think of what would be okay to say. _I'm fighting just this once, because she made me angry. But I won't do it again, so don't ask. _Or _There's a monster in here, be quiet already! _

She could just make Luna's shape out through the fog, and the cat was no more than her arm's reach away. (A distant part of Ami was impressed with herself, with these powers. They created fog thick as pea soup, and it lasted a long time. So it seemed, at least. She wondered if she could actually get rid of it, when she wanted to. Or would it just linger? Maybe she could open a window...)

It was Luna's voice that brought her back from the impromptu thought-tangent. "Mercury!" The cat hissed. Her back was arched, and she was staring into the fog. "The monster, it's right -- "

And the desk above them broke in half and Ami screamed and rolled to the side. And she just barely avoided the teacher-monster's claws burying themselves in her shoulder. Luna sprang away into the fog and Ami, thinking the cat wise, followed her.

She skittered blindly, around tables and the slumped, shallow-breathing forms of students, until she reached a wall. She sat against it, trying to be as quiet as possible. She couldn't hear the monster, and couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The soft padding came again, and Luna was at her side.

"How did you find me in this?" She whispered, staring at the little cat.

Luna's reply this time was soft. Apparently she'd learned her lesson. "I can feel your... your fighting aura, or something like it. When you're transformed." She paused. "Why are you transformed? I thought you quit."

Ami was still listening for the sounds of approaching death, so her reply was cursory. "It wasn't my choice. She attacked me. I got angry. She had no right! No right to go interfering with my studies like that! And all _their_ studies, too," she said, meaning the other students. Who might or might not live to study again. Ami didn't know what this whole energy business was. Would they die? End up in comas? Or just wake up later, a little tired?

It didn't make sense. And as she talked about it, Ami realized that she was _still_ angry.

"I want to fight her." She whispered.

It was hard to tell, in the fog, if Luna looked surprised or pleased.

"You need to sneak up on her... Your attack isn't offensive, so we need a different plan." The cat said. "I'll distract her, you come behind and stab her with something, or hit her. Like last time."

Ami was full of questions again; for one thing, stab with what? How would she find the monster in the fog? How would Luna find her? Or anything, for that matter?

"You'll hear me meow. Follow the noise." Luna said, turning. Her black body vanished into the fog again. Ami realized that, strangely, she didn't feel cold. The fog was wet and clammy on her skin, and she knew she should have been shivering. But it felt like just the right temperature for her...

A meow came out of the whiteness. Then heavy footsteps, monster footsteps, and a smash. A pause (where Ami's heart stopped, and Ami could only think that Luna was dead, Luna was surely dead) and then another meow.

Ami jumped to her feet before the next smash came. Luna was leading the monster, then? The sounds were ahead of her, and to the left. Another meow, but it was moving across the classroom. If Ami went to where thelast sound had been, she might be able to get behind the monster.

She tiptoed, slowly, so slowly. Two meows, and a clatter, and then the smash. Forward and left. She skirted around students and chairs. A frustrated growl from the monster, directly ahead of her.

"Stupid cat!" The monster hissed. "Where are you, you and your little warrior friend?"

By the time Ami heard the next meow, the monster's shape was resolving out of the fog. And she'd done it right! The monster had her back to her. Luna meowed again and the monster moved to swing, but not before Ami jumped forward and grabbed her elbows. She hooked her own arms through them, pinning the monster's arms. The monster screamed, or roared, or maybe both. And then Ami had the sinking thought. _I was supposed to kill her, not just immobilize her. What can I do now, that won't result in her spinning around and impaling me as soon as I let her go?_

The monster was doing her best to get free, too, and Ami realized that monsters were, in general, stronger than young girls. It wouldn't be too long before the monster got free. So she pushed forward, hoping to slam it into a desk or a chair, trip it up or something like that.

The monster struggled more wildly as Ami shoved forward, but she kept her hold. They didn't hit any desks or chairs, though. Ami kept going, unsure, until they both slammed into the wall. Ami gasped with the impact; her cheek touched something smooth and chill. _The window!_

The substitute teacher yanked on her arms and Ami gasped at the sudden pain. She made a quick, crazy decision. She let one of the monster's hands go free, and the monster whirled around, ready to slash at her. Going for her face, or her neck.

But while the monster was whirling, Ami was busy. She grabbed the latch on the window and yanked it open, and ducked under the monster's swipe. The monster moved forward with the unexpected momentum, and Ami popped up again, and shoved, _hard_. The teacher-monster screamed as she slammed into the window.

And the window fell open, with no latch to keep it closed. The monster's momentum carried her over the sill and down out of sight. And then there was a thud-crunch-squish sound, and Ami's heart slowed from its breakneck pace at last.

"I.. It's.. I..." She panted. She stuck her head out the window for a second, to see, and pulled it in just as quickly. There was nothing but an outline of dust in the shape of a monster on the pavement, but it was chilling to look at nonetheless. The fog was rolling slowly out the window.

As it cleared out of the room, Luna appeared, panting. She hopped onto the sill and looked at Ami.

"Good job, Mercury." She said, looking down at the outline.

Ami was more concerned with looking inside the room, at the other students as they were revealed in the vanishing fog. "Are they going to be okay?"

"The monster drained their energy for the Dark Kingdom... but I don't think she drained enough to kill them. If you don't die right away, you'll eventually recover and gain back your energy."

"Thank goodness. I... I think my class isn't going to continue, today." Ami looked around. Without a teacher, or more than one student? No, it wouldn't. (And she would regret it, and her study schedule suffer for it.)

"I don't think your school will, either. I think this monster had already hit the other two classes--the rooms were full of unconscious students when I arrived."

"Mercury..." Luna said, looking at her. "The Dark Kingdom will continue doing this to people in the town. They'll steal energy, and disrupt class, and work, and life. And it will only get worse." Ami didn't want to hear the next part, she really didn't. "If nobody died this time, it doesn't mean that soon they won't take enough energy away to kill someone. They have to be stopped before that happens. Before worse can happen!"

Ami didn't want to ask about the 'worse'. Even though the monster was dead, she was still mad. Half at the monster and this 'Dark Kingdom', half at Luna. Some at herself, for falling into the trap. Or for doing what she was about to do.

Luna was continuing. "Can't you help me? They might not disrupt your life again, but other--"

"I understand, Luna." Ami interrupted. The cat stopped, looking taken aback. "Well, I understand it a little bit at least. It's for the good of the many, right? If I can't have a normal life, I should secure it for other people?"

"It's your duty."

"No, it's not." Ami said firmly. Luna looked like she was about to give up, to turn around and walk out of Ami's life forever--that was the impression Ami got. _Too bad for you, Luna,_ Ami thought.

"My duty is to study hard and get into a good high school. And then a good college, and to go on to become a doctor and help people, and fulfill the promise I made to my mother." And she was going to do it, too. Ami smiled a little. _Too bad for you, Luna, you're not going to get to walk out of this so easily. _"This? This is purely extracurricular."

"What?" There was no mistaking the all-too-human shock on Luna's face.

"I'm not going to let them mess up other people's normal lives. I'm not doing it because of a duty, or because I believe you that I'm the only one who can do it. I'm going to do it because they messed with the wrong girl's cram school, and because the sooner I stop them, the sooner I can go back to studying without interruptions."

-----------------------------

Even trapped in sleep, the girl was beautiful, Nephrite thought. She was still young, and modern life had changed her (softened some things, hardened others, there were subtle differences that went beyond the lack of a crescent moon on her brow), but it was easy to see the Moon's Princess in this teenager. When you knew what to look for.

He stared down at her sleeping form, sprawled out on the jet black stone that made up most of the Dark Kingdom's palace. (The contrast of her blonde hair pooling below her on the black stone was not lost on him, either. It was artistic. Zoicite would have appreciated it better, were he here.) She was in one of the inner courtyards; all the exits were sealed. He and his companion were standing on one of the catwalks above, keeping watch.

Metallia said she was dangerous, this girl. Even in sleep, Metallia said. (Nephrite was growing a little tired of "Metallia says this, Metallia commands that" coming day and night from Beryl's lips. Life had been far better before Beryl had fully awakened the ancient Queen, he was beginning to think.) So they watched her, and kept her contained. Not just by walls, either.

That was why Jadeite stood next to him, looking down at the girl.

"I can't believe it's really that Princess," he said; _that Princess_ came out sounding something between a slur and an honorific title. (Nephrite observed that Jadeite hadn't really worked out his feelings about his past life, yet. He'd made that observation about the blonde man time and time again, and Jadeite never seemed to make any process. It was all confusion and anger for him.) "I can't believe this little girl really has the Moon Queen's most powerful weapon sealed inside her."

Nephrite would have been inclined to agree, but he refrained from nodding. "It's what Metallia tells us. Beryl says that Metallia can sense the power of the crystal coming from the girl."

"But nothing about how to get it out of her."

"No, nothing about that." Nephrite shook his head. "Isn't that why you're here?"

Jadeite growled something in the back of his throat, and Nephrite ignored it. After a moment, Jadeite continued. "We gathered more energy. Most of it will, unfortunately, have to go to Metallia, to keep her strength up, but.."

_We are over-extending ourselves,_ Nephrite thought. _We don't have the energy to keep this great Metallia satisfied and manage anything else besides. We barely have enough to keep her from lapsing into slumber again_. He wasn't sure it would be a bad thing, if they withheld the energy and let the self-entitled Queen die. Or go back to sleep, and bother them no more. They would go back to their plans to make the world kneel before them; Beryl would go back to normal, perhaps, and the others as well.

He tuned back in to what Jadeite was saying. "Did you hear me? I've kept aside the portion you asked for. It's more than I should have. You _owe _me, now, because it's my head if Beryl realizes I'm shortchanging her great Queen."

"It won't go to waste," Nephrite assured him, not looking away from the sleeping form of the girl. No, it wouldn't go to waste.

He was only supposed to be getting enough energy to keep her in the enchanted sleep (and keep her alive in magical stasis) until Beryl or Metallia could figure out a way to take the crystal out of her. But Nephrite was always ambitious. If he used more energy, there had to be a way to remove the crystal from the girl. Enough energy, enough darkness and different spells, and he could pick apart Queen Serenity's seal. It was of the same breed as the one that had sealed Metallia, and he'd watched Beryl and Kunzite break that one. It would only be a matter of time.

And then he'd have the Mystical Silver Crystal, the legendary Crystal. He would give it to Metallia, and rise above the other generals. Or else to Beryl, and they could all cast aside Metallia's harness. Or he might keep it for himself. The possibilities were endless, if only he had the Crystal in his hands. That was the very nature of the Mystical Silver Crystal, he was sure. Possibility.

"You had better be sure," Jadeite said. There was anger in his voice as he strode away, but Nephrite still did not look up from the sleeping princess. He _was_ sure.

* * *

July 3, 2007: Well, that's a chapter that doesn't end on a cliffhanger, for once. Don't expect it again. I'm horrible about using them liberally.

And, three chapters in, the title character finally makes her appearance. Granted, she doesn't do anything but sleep -- but isn't that like Usagi? For a preview's sake, the next chapter, #4, whose title is yet unknown, should be appearing within the week. In it, Ami practices the maxim "In distress, go to the library", Luna chases birds, and a great many buses are ridden by all.


End file.
